


phantoms in the early dark

by Jaybird_Wings



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Deity Au, Gen, Temporary Character Death, minecraft-like world but no respawning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:09:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27414028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jaybird_Wings/pseuds/Jaybird_Wings
Summary: Through a moment of intense fear, desire, joy, or sadness can it happen.In a rush of victory after battle, or after accomplishing an impossible feat, or just through the sheer power of human determination, does a deity make.or, Tommy dies in the duel against Dream. But it doesn't stick.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 84





	phantoms in the early dark

**Author's Note:**

> I was just thinking about which deaths in the dreams smp, if permanent, would be the most depressing. And then it spiraled from there.

The Dream SMP is a world full of wonder. There were healing potions, giant spiders, and pearls of teleportation.  
The people of this land adjusted and lived their lives content. Short, boring, and simple.

Villagers are born in a place they most likely will never leave. They pick up a simple living, being a farmer or smith or something of the same vein, and do that until they die. Maybe they have a family to continue the cycle of the mundane. Sometimes an adventurer or hero is born, or those restless with being sat in one spot.

But it’s not just monsters and humans who roam these lands.  
There exist the deities.  
These beings were near indestructible and outlived everything around them. Deities were stronger, they had more endurance and pain tolerance. But, most distinguishing is the core aspect of the deity. A god of luck, a goddess of wheat, a deity of light. This aspect is what made each deity unique.

The deities have always preferred to have some privacy over anything else. Ancient temples and ruins were of another era. Still, some rose to prominence under the guise of a talented mortal. Others stayed in shadow, their names only whispered in the dark corners of the continent.

Deities die, though. Many have. Being known fuels their power and some prefer to live a calm life in the countryside until they vanish. To be unknown is to equal death for them.

But with those vacancies come the new deities. A deity isn’t born but made. Through a moment of intense fear, desire, joy, or sadness can it happen.  
In a rush of victory after a battle, or after accomplishing an impossible feat, or just through the sheer power of human determination, does a deity make.

There- a change occurs.

In the Dream SMP, the name Technoblade was whispered. A war god who thrived off of bloodshed, who hasn’t been seen in decades. Many don’t believe in him anymore, but he’s far from forgotten.  
(For a war god, he hasn’t been seen in the recent war that troubled the peace)

In the Dream SMP, almost all the residents were unaware of the very monarch on top was a deity himself. He built a kingdom of great power with his own two hands and was known all over for being the greatest warrior.  
What does a god of fate have to fear when he can work around destiny itself?  
Dream had those he confided in (George, Sapnap) who knew who they served. It was easy to forget, at times, when they messed around and joked with each other, that masked man was so extraordinary.  
But even the future holds its mysteries for him.

Maybe Wilbur Soot would have hesitated before starting a war if he knew his opponent wasn’t mortal. But maybe he still would have. The past is past, and the war has been raging.  
There are destruction and unrest, but the deities of the land stay neutral. Dream was the oldest of them, and you didn’t mess with him.

Someone as old as him knows how to plan, and plan, and plan until their enemy is cornered. How to convince even the most loyal of soldiers to turn to betrayal.

(The thing about deities. though, is that they know when another is made.)

The rebels that made up L’manberg were all mortal but filled to the brim with fire. Doesn’t change the fact that the odds were impossibly stacked against them. L’manberg was dropped with arrows and overturned by explosions until they were left with nothing.  
Losing was imminent, and unavoidable.

Tommy- impulsive and proud and defiant and scared- challenges Dream to a duel.  
Challenges the god of fate to a duel of chance.  
Dream accepts because fate favors only one of them.

-and Tommy does lose. The price is an arrow that pierces through his heart. It kills him before drowning does, and Dream is named the victor.  
The people of L’manberg are thrown into sadness, chaos, and defeat.

The leader of the rebels carries the body back behind the walls of L’manberg. Wilbur walks slowly and carefully, with tears down his face. He couldn’t keep up a mask, not now when their freedom was taken and so was the life of someone so young.  
Tubbo can’t stick around, because he can’t stop the tears when they start, so he walks around the perimeter of the walls and picks flowers.

The people of L’manberg mourn, pushing off the funeral planning until later. Until after the chaos settles.

In the middle of the night, something shifts in the world.

Dream notices first, that a new deity is made. Technoblade feels it too, though he is farther away. And Wilbur Soot is only a man, but he’s the first person to hear the gasping, coughing, and the following wail that came from the room that held Tommy’s corpse.

Wilbur ran, slamming the door open to see what had happened, and froze.

Tommy Innit was sitting up in bed, alive again.  
Made a god by tragedy, he stared at Wilbur with an ashen face and sunken eyes.

“Wilbur… wha-what happened?” He asks voice cracked and shaking and so unlike his boisterous and confident self.

“Holy shit.”

The young boy spends a lot of time alone afterward.

He doesn’t talk to anyone, as many are busy with the upcoming meeting with Dream and his council. The world feels different, but there’s no guide or explanation when a deity is born. Just the tidal wave of emotions that follow.  
(He remembers the moment he died, he remembers it so vividly he’s sure he’s never going to forget what it felt like to die for the first time)  
Tommy was lost and scared, and he didn’t want the others to see him like that.

This was his second chance, and he gave his life for his country. The least he could do was give up something else of lesser value.  
(His discs)

Dream accepts the deal but has more to say.

“I killed you.”

“Guess you didn’t try hard enough. I got back up.”

“Tommy, people don’t just ‘get back up’ from a shot to the heart. You’re different, you feel it don’t you?”

And it’s true. Sometimes Tommy forgets to breathe, but it’s fine he never chokes anymore. Even after healing potions and eating and exercising again he still looks like a walking corpse.  
(His friends were almost scared he was a zombie, but he could still talk and write- he didn’t lose his mind. Even if the world has stopped making sense.)  
But he can also feel the world hum around him differently. He knows when something dies. And Dream himself is also unnatural, even if he can’t put a finger on why.

“Why do you care?”

“You could say, I’m a little like you.”

“You’ve died?”

“No, not like that. I’ve never heard of a deity coming back from the dead. That must be your thing.”

“Stop speaking nonsense- what do you mean?”

“Through a moment of intense fear, desire, joy, or sadness is a deity made. It was a long time ago where my joy and arrogance turned me into one. I was the fastest, undefeatable, it’s as if fate herself was on my side. In hard to describe with words. I now understand fate. I could always tell you’d become something, I just didn’t think it’d be a god.”

A god.

When Tommy died, he would’ve expected to feel incredibly angry, or even an overwhelming sadness. But as he choked on water and blood, he was determined. He wanted to keep going, he wanted to keep living, he wanted to come back and punch the green fucker in his stupid smiling mask and show that he wasn’t done. Death couldn’t stop him, not when he still had to fight.

“So, what, now I’m a god of, uh, not dying?”

“You know better than me. You’re the one that suddenly respawned.”

“Are there any others like us?”

“Few and spread out. Most of them don’t enjoy the spotlight.”

L’manberg wins independence and heals and builds up.  
“We’re going to make this the greatest city in the world,” Wilbur commands.  
It’s still weird for others to see Tommy. People startle when he enters a room or get teary-eyed. But Tubbo has been there for him. He’d be lying if things were the same as they used to be, but it’s good.

Niki’s flag lifts in the breeze. They had fought and won. It was finally peaceful.

If only things could've stayed that way forever. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a kudos and comment if you enjoyed!


End file.
